Broken Mirrors and Broken Hearts
by stydiasezrias
Summary: When the liars find out Ali is 'A', they all move on together, away from Ali. But when Ali and Emily can't stop thinking about it each other, they start a relationship, while trying to hide it from the other liars. However what happens when one of them doesn't want to keep it a secret anymore?
1. Broken Mirrors and Broken Hearts

She slips her pale deadly fingers through the thick auburn layers of Emily's hair, while she dozes off into a trance. The golden sunshine caresses through the curtains; capturing the room in an autumn glow. Emily stirs around as Ali whispers for her to come back to reality.

"Em" she says softly, as she leans towards her, to catch any remaining scent of her perfume

"Em" she repeats, this time it's said with more love and lust in mind.

Emily opens her gloomy woeful eyes, and straight in front of her she sees mystical blue ones staring right back at her; filled with admiration and desire. Ali lunges forward, and captures Emily in a passionate kiss. Ali thrusts away, and leaps from the bed, with a blanket around her for warmth, in order to shut the gaping window.

Last night they fell asleep fully clothed, and wrapped in each other's warm embrace. They both knew it could be a while before they see each other next, so they made the most of the night. For in this town, you need to prepare for the worst, just to survive the best.

Emily had gotten used to these improvised situations over the past few months, all the sneaking and lying, just so the other liars wouldn't find out about them. Many a time Ali had suggested that Emily told them. But they weren't Ali's friends, (not anymore at least), so it wasn't her decision. But this morning almost as though on queue Ali couldn't bite her tongue any longer, so for what seemed to Emily to be the 100th time this month, she opened her cherry blossom lips and asked if they could tell them.

"Please Em" Ali begs Emily. Emily, whom has now turned around so she doesn't face Ali, is welling up inside, desperate to shout at her, but she keeps her composure.

"I don't want to hide anymore" her voice cracks slightly as she says the following words "I love you".

Emily's face slides from one of anger into one of disbelief. She'd always had her doubts that Ali was playing her, like before, but now she had proof, by saying those words, Ali has just given Emily the key to her heart.

"Em" she murmurs "did you hear what I said?" How someone so beautiful and special could be so broken and hurt inside was a mystery to her. Her hands are shaking from anticipation, what if Emily doesn't love her and this is all payback, because of her evil schemes. She knows I had no choice, Ali bellows in her head.

Emily turns around gradually, and opens her watermelon pink mouth slightly; the words come out almost as if she's rehearsed them a thousand times.

"I've got to go" Emily confesses, she grabs her lilac covered bag and hurtles towards the door.

BOOM! Ali looks up from her feet to see Emily sprawled across the floor, and her mirror smashed from the fall.

"EM", Ali yells "are you alright?" Ali rushes to help, but Emily pushes her aside, and scrambles up by herself.

"I'm fine" Emily declares, without out daring to look at Ali again, she leaves, but not before Ali had looked in her eyes and seen a look of self-pity and pain, a look she knew all too well, as it was the one that faces her in the broken mirror before her. Ali is still standing like a statue, shock spreading through her veins. For those words didn't come out in a struggle, they were perfectly prepared. Not a word out of place, or a second out of time. It seems as though with all this practice, Emily had exceeded in the arts of manipulation and lies. For they weren't the words she meant, but the words that stopped her getting hurt by the same girl twice.


	2. The Morning After the Night Before

During the night Ali had thrown her mauve duvet across the room in frustration of the previous day. So today she lies on her mattress, her arm is trapped underneath the plump pillow and her knees bending at a an angle. She slips gently into semi-consciousness and rolls around to face the bed, she outstretches her right arm as usual, expecting to feel the warmth of Emily's body pulse through her. But her hand swipes the surrounding air and Ali realizes that yesterday wasn't a dream.

She said them, she'd said those three little words. She never knew the true meaning of them until now, when Emily had turned her back on her that day, she hadn't just broken her mirror on the way out, but she'd also broken her heart.

Ali screams into her pillow, her anger had got the better of her. Suddenly she hears footsteps clambering up the stairs, she jumps out of bed and grabs her baseball bat ready to pounce. Her heart was beating out of her chest, what's left of her heart anyway. As the door gradually opens, Ali prepares herself, she takes a step forward – ready to spring on her attacker. As a bulky figure enters the room, Ali doesn't think to look who it is, she swings her bat; aiming right for their nose. The bulky figure ducks just in time, as the bat scrapes the top of their short tidy hair. Shock covers all of his face, as he looks up at his only daughter, and sees once again his little girl. It reminds him of the time when Ali was 7, and she was scared of someone coming to get her in the night. So he went outside in pouring rain, opened up a rusty old lid and brought her some sand. He put it in a box beside her bed, and he whispered in her ear, that if someone comes to get her, to grab a pinch of the 'magic monster dust' as he called it, and throw it over the monster, and then she would be safe. Since that night, he had never seen any such fear in her eyes as he had since her return home.

"Dad?" Ali questions. "Is that you?". Her father had heard Ali's screams and come to check everything was okay. Ali reassures him that everything is okay several times and when she finally convinces him to go, he leaves promptly.

Ali glances at her gold watch which Emily had let her borrow and sighs heavily. 4 pm, Ali had spent the last 3 hours staring at her computer screen, waiting for the light emitting diode to turn green, waiting for Emily to get online. Ali couldn't take it anymore, she turns of her computer, grabs her red cardigan (which matched perfectly with her ruby skirt and sapphire blouse), and heads out. She slams the front door so vigorously on her way out that her house number shakes on it's hinges. Ali's pace quickens rapidly, as she only had once place in her mind. One place she needs to be.

As the door opens, the bell in the corner goes off, signalling her arrival. She scans the room hurriedly. She should be here, she announces to herself. A friendly voice interrupts her inner monologue.

"Hello, what can I get you?" a young man with hair the colour of straw inquires.

Ali hasn't been paying attention, but she thinks maybe a drink could calm her nerves. "One large coffee please."

The man, looks down at her shaking hands, and looks back up into her entrancing eyes. "Decaf?" he queries, she looks down at her own hands, and realizes that caffeine probably wouldn't make her situation any better, not that it could get much worse though.

Ali grabs her drinks, and heads towards a table by the window. She'll be here soon she reassures herself.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile three streets away, Emily rose after a sleepless night filled with regret and dread of what she said and did. As she got out of bed she caught a glimpse of her own reflection, the dark circles under her eyes growing by the second. She rose her shirt above her head and flung it across the room, onto a pile of dirty laundry. After undressing she grabbed her towel and strolled into the shower and drew the curtains.<p>

PING. Ali had PING been constantly messa PING ging her since PING yesterday. She decided to turn her computer off, she could last a day without it.

She grabbed her brown satchel and apron and headed to work. 11:45, she was meant to be there by now. She slid into her old petite car, and fumbled trying to get the right key into the keyhole, on her third attempt she managed to succeed. She turned the key and the engine roared.

She arrived at work 7 minutes late, the bell in the corner rattling vigorously as she entered. She tied her apron tightly around her slimmed waist and began her shift by cleaning the tables. She spent most of the next 4 hours in the back room, checking the inventory. When she came out into the café, she turned to her right and saw Ezra, he was holding an old tattered book, which had obviously been read consistently, in his tight grasp. On the front cover, the words 'The Great Gatsby' smothered the page.

She hadn't seen him in over a week, she was just on her way over to the table, when she saw Aria walk out of the restroom. Emily stepped back in hesitation, she thought of yesterday and realized that she couldn't cope with seeing them. It would feel like she chose them over Ali, but she could never do that. But it was too late, Aria had already seen her.

"Em" Aria calls. It didn't feel the same hearing those words come out of someone's mouth who wasn't Ali. "Come over" she announces.

Emily strolls over to their corner table, already thinking of an excuse to leave. "Hi, I was actually just.." Emily starts.

"Don't be silly" Ezra interrupts, "join us".

Emily pulled up a chair and sat across from the happy couple. She admired the way they're so normal, they can be together and they have nothing to hide. How she wished her and Ali could be like them. Then she realized – they could have been like them. Ali had suggested they live like them, not caring what others around them thought. She was the one who had turned it down, who had pushed away the one person who loved her no matter what. She had denied herself the privilege of love.

Emily stood up, all the blood rushing to her had, but she didn't care for she knew what she had to do. She placed the tray on the table to her left, untied her apron, and threw it over the tray. She got in her car, succeeding in starting the engine the first time, and headed back the way she came. Her house stood out from the rest, it glowed, like she did. She parked her car further down the street, so no one knew she was here. She ran down the road, pulling her hood up as she ran. She rushed to the door, her fist inches from the hard wooden frame, then she pulled back. She caught a ladder in the corner of her eye which lead to her room. She rushed up the ladder, careful to keep her balance as she reached the top.

Emily knocked repeatedly on the door, but no response came. Then she heard a bang from behind her, she wasn't balanced enough to turn around, but she climbed through Ali's slightly ajar window. When she scrambled through the window she turned around and saw Ali's sun-kissed hair spill down beside her face, framing it perfectly. It was almost as glossy and smooth as satin. It reached down just barely touching her shoulder, and bounced as she walked.

Emily ran down the stairs and followed the exact path that Ali had taken. Her dark chocolate strands spilled down from on top of her head curling at the touch of her shoulders. It tickled her face as the wind blew gently past her body. The way it hung and framed her face was as if she was a model.

* * *

><p>Now Ali has been waiting for 3 minutes, but I seems like 3 hours. Every second seems like infinity to her. She hasn't even touched her coffee yet, the uncertainty of Emily is controlling her body and every impulse in her. Every time the bell in the corner rings, her eyes dart up immediately, hoping and wishing to see her familiar face looking back at her.<p>

Emily could see Ali, her fingers brushing against her scalp, caressing her own hair, behind her ear. Her heart is beating in time with her watch, every second on the second. She takes a deep breath and run through the door. The bell in the corner signals Ali to her presence.

Ali stands up, almost knocking her coffee all over herself, but she doesn't care. All she cares about is the face staring back at her. Emily drops her bag on the floor and runs to Ali, pressing her cherry lips against hers.

"I'm sorry" Ali whispers in between kisses.

"I love you, I do" Emily confesses, "I don't care what the others think, I only care what you think". Ali breathes in and pulls her closer. They pull apart and they don't even realize all eyes in the room are on them, they are too entranced with each other, that they can't see anyone else around them. They're living in a world of their own, where they can't be disturbed.


End file.
